Rockets weather storm from Trail Blazers, avoid meltdown

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The Rockets did not quite match Thursday’s first half against Oklahoma City, but they were close enough. They scored 71 points in the first half Monday, a James Harden bucket that was taken off the board away from matching Thursday night’s roll into halftime.

Thoughts of that night and what had gone so horribly wrong were inescapable. Rather than hide from them, the Rockets invited the memories, as if they knew the Trail Blazers would make the sort of run they have so often this season. The Rockets would have to face that heat again to finally put Thursday behind them.

“I said when we came back here, ‘We did this against the Thunder and ended up having the worst second half ever,’ ” Chandler Parsons said. “I was definitely letting them know there could be no letups.”

Portland made its move, but this time the Rockets did not flinch. They repelled one run and then another, doing what they had to build the lead in the first place until they had finished off the Trail Blazers 126-113 with their top-scoring night of the season.

To the Rockets, the numbers piled up were not about another roaring first half, the third in a row in which they topped 60 points, but a second half in which they responded to the pressure as they could not less than a week ago.

“We’ve been in that situation so many times, eventually we’re going to start playing better and … be more comfortable in those situations,” said Parsons, who had a season-high 31 points, adding 10 rebounds, seven assists and two blocked shots.

“I thought we handled it a lot better tonight. We have to stick with what works. A lot of times, we get big leads, and then we start doing little silly things, and we start changing our offense. We can’t afford to do that.”

Portland finished the first half with a 7-0 run and opened the second with a 3-pointer, rapidly reducing a 22-point deficit to 12. The Trail Blazers scored on six of seven possessions to start the second half, with Dwight Howard picking up a technical foul and the Rockets going through three scoreless minutes. With five minutes remaining before the fourth quarter, the top-scoring team in the NBA was within six and rolling.

“We just held our composure,” James Harden said. “They got a couple of calls, and we just tried to play through it. We couldn’t worry about what they were doing. We had to figure out a way to fight through it and play harder, push the tempo a little harder and play defense. We did a good job of that.”

The Rockets made only three of 13 3-pointers after hitting 10 of 13 in the first half. But rather than abandon what had been working, they kept moving the ball to those same good shots. They began the second half against Oklahoma City getting good shots, many at the rim, and missing. They began the second half Monday making two of eight shots but did not let up.
“We just kept playing,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “Everybody thinks that there is some miraculous big secret. ‘They had 19 points (in the second half Thursday), and oh my goodness.’ Well, the ball didn’t go in. We missed layups and stuff. We just kept playing and pushing the ball (Monday).”

By the time the Trail Blazers made their fourth-quarter run, moving within 11 with 6½ minutes left, the Rockets barely shrugged. They scored on six of seven possessions, many by crashing the boards for some of their season-high 23 second-chance points, until the lead was back to 18 with 3:41 left and the benches were cleared.

“We just stayed together,” Howard said. “They made a run in the third quarter, and instead of us complaining, we got to the bench. We talked about what we needed to do and got a good win against a very, very good team.”